I sit here with a stuffed up nose and puffy eyes because my 15 year old sweet kitty is about to go to the rainbow bridge. It started in march when she developed neurological problems where it looked like she had a stroke. Apparently cats don't have strokes, but she was doing badly enough that the vet put her on a small dose of prednisone.
During the visit, she got some xrays done and it was found she had one enlarged kidney with fluid around it and one mishapen kidney. Also a slight heart murmur. Despite the murmur, the vet thought the pred would be beneficial to her. And it was. Until a couple of weeks later, she developed congestive heart failure and it was another trip to the vet. A few days of water pills and she was a little better. We weaned her off the pred and saved the water pills just in case there was a recurrance of the heart failure.
Follow up appointment two weeks later and the heart sounded fine, the vet decided to put her on a low dose of atenelol to help with the heart that she has been taking once nightly. The strange thing that happened was that after I brought her home this time, she was walking on the hock of her right back leg. A week and a half later she was back in business.
I took her back for another follow up appointment, got a refill on the atenelol and agreed to follow up again in six months. I brought her home and she was walking on the hocks of both back legs. Since then she's slowly backslid to where she stopped eating and walking around and meows every 30 minutes. I talked to my dad and we thought it would probably be for the best to put her down. I'll be calling the vet tomorrow.
I am so distraught at the thought of doing this, but I can't keep letting her suffer. I can't even think about it... my heart is broken and she's not even gone yet.
During the visit, she got some xrays done and it was found she had one enlarged kidney with fluid around it and one mishapen kidney. Also a slight heart murmur. Despite the murmur, the vet thought the pred would be beneficial to her. And it was. Until a couple of weeks later, she developed congestive heart failure and it was another trip to the vet. A few days of water pills and she was a little better. We weaned her off the pred and saved the water pills just in case there was a recurrance of the heart failure.
Follow up appointment two weeks later and the heart sounded fine, the vet decided to put her on a low dose of atenelol to help with the heart that she has been taking once nightly. The strange thing that happened was that after I brought her home this time, she was walking on the hock of her right back leg. A week and a half later she was back in business.
I took her back for another follow up appointment, got a refill on the atenelol and agreed to follow up again in six months. I brought her home and she was walking on the hocks of both back legs. Since then she's slowly backslid to where she stopped eating and walking around and meows every 30 minutes. I talked to my dad and we thought it would probably be for the best to put her down. I'll be calling the vet tomorrow.
I am so distraught at the thought of doing this, but I can't keep letting her suffer. I can't even think about it... my heart is broken and she's not even gone yet.
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